Architects sue for payment

Real estate

NANCY SARNOFF, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Published 5:30 am, Saturday, September 5, 2009

A Houston architecture firm is owed more than $800,000 for design work on a hospital planned for Chinatown, the company alleges in a lawsuit filed in state district court. Page Southerland Page said it was never paid by Universal Building Group and an affiliate, Alliance Development Group or Aegis Funds Management for $813,386 in labor and architectural services it provided on the Chinatown development. The physician-owned hospital was to be run by the University General Hospital system, which operates a facility just south of the Texas Medical Center and was also named in the suit filed last week. The 80-bed hospital was supposed to be part of a larger real estate development that was to include high-rise condos, shops and office space at along Beltway 8 between Bellaire and Beechnut. It was announced in early 2007. Edward T. Laborde Jr., an attorney with Winstead who represents University General Hospital, said it’s not his firm’s policy to comment on pending litigation. The other defendants could not be reached.

Rice University
faced possible eviction up until last week because their landlord failed to receive city occupancy permits for the properties. Violations to building codes were “extensive,” said
Andy Icken
, deputy public works director for the city of Houston. “We could have just evicted everybody right away,” he said. The city became aware of the situation about four months ago after a neighbor called to complain that people were using the warehouses as offices.

Jim Reid
of
Rabon Reid Real Estate Services
was given 90 days to bring the buildings up to code. Reid said the buildings have been used as retail or office for years, but were never updated in the city’s system. “The city gave us list of things they wanted us to get done. We got them done and were back to business as usual,” he said. Some tenants stopped paying rent as the landlord began construction work to bring the buildings up to code. Two have moved out. Two of the buildings — 2421 Tangley and 2449 South Blvd. — were brought up to code and certificates of occupancy were issued. The buildings are 5,000 and 5,200 square feet, according to the Harris County Appraisal District. The third property, a smaller building at 2415 Bissonnet, hasn’t received its permit but is expected to this week.

No work yet on Ashby

Even after receiving a permit to build a 23-story tower near Rice University, the developers of what became known as the “Ashby high-rise” aren’t quite ready to start shoveling dirt.
Buckhead Investment Partners
said they still want to build the project as originally designed. The newly issued permit, approved by the city more than a week ago after 11th attempts by the developers, clears the way for the tower to go up with the same number of stories but without a small retail store, a wellness spa and some private offices. A pedestrian plaza also was replaced with a driveway. Developers
Matthew Morgan
and
Kevin Kirton
said that because they don’t trust the city to deal with them in good faith, they won’t proceed with any work on the project until they get all the necessary permits. They have a foundation permit, Kirton said, and the next step is to submit a structural design plan to receive a structural permit. Morgan said the 11th set of plans the developers submitted, which the city approved, was more a result of “the city’s having coerced us” than of the developers’ actual intentions. They were trying to determine if a standard existed that would lead to approval, Morgan said. Buckhead now may challenge the city on the project’s revised design. In the meantime, the company said it will honor all current leases with the residents at an apartment complex that still operates on the site of the proposed tower at 1717 Bissonnet. “Both new and renewal leases will continue until such time that all reasonable avenues to gain permission to build the original design have been explored,” the company said in a statement.
Chronicle reporter Mike Snyder contributed to this report.